the republicans and democrats alike designed the fiscal cliff. it's a series of bipartisan compromises and i think it's kind of foolish to think that this group of congressmen and senators is going to come up with a way out of something they themselves designed. >> rich, you worked for a republican speaker who went up against a democratic president over the spending issues. back then the face-off didn't turn out all that well for your party. obviously very different era. do you agree with eric's take? is the right strategy for republicans to stick to their guns, forget about compromise? >> no. i really don't -- eric is one of my favorite people. we talk a lot. but i think that, and i did work for the speaker gingrich during the shut-down fight in '96, and it did not work out well for republicans. the president has a much bigger bully pulpit than the speaker does. newt gingrich's bully pulpit was pretty big back in those days but at some point, republicans in the house -- and i think boehner is trying to look for ways to do this, speaker boehner,